A new British bill of rights and duties may include duties of behaviour between fellow citizens that are enforceable by judges, the justice secretary Jack Straw indicated yesterday. Straw, also lord chancellor, is planning a British bill of rights to complement the European convention on human rights. The exercise is separate from a possible 20-year plan to introduce a potential British written constitution.

Straw made his remarks in a speech at George Washington University, Washington DC, where he also indicated that a written constitution was 20 years away. He said he was looking at a US-style sentencing commission that might take into account the size of the prison population in making broad decisions on sentencing.